Withering Hope
by CeliaBlair24
Summary: Takes place after the finale of Book Three. Relearning to walk is much harder a task then Korra thought it would be, and with days lengthening and progress slow, she slowly succumbs to her own depression. Canon-Compliant. ONESHOT


She always loved the mornings.

The red and orange flashes of dusk as they clashed against the crystal-blue desert of ice and snow. Warm in the bitter cold. Beautiful and different against a simple, static backdrop. The mornings always reminded her of the many reasons she missed home. Unique, unparalleled, so desperately different from every single thing that identified everywhere else.

"Morning, dear"

Melancholic, Korra kept her gaze on the morning sky, a sigh on her lips as light footsteps made their way from across the room to the balcony where she sat. She didn't answer, she never did. She wondered, however minutely, if her mother ever got tired of the way things were now. She knew she was, and had been since the moment she had been led- chained and dragged, into this situation. Of course, like many other questions flittering across her mind, it remained unasked and thus, unanswered. It was fine, however. It wasn't important. Questions never were.

"Your father's already up, hopefully he hasn't eaten everything up yet, yeah?"

Korra only inclined her head, beady eyes her lone, nonverbal answer to her mother's attempt at a joke. The woman smiled in response, strained as it was, and never commented again. That, made Korra frown. It made her angry and frustrated and sad all the same. _It_ wasn't right, nothing about this was right. But who did she have to blame other than herself? Shoulders sagged, the respite of the morning's peacefulness ebbed away as Korra was carted out of her little shack of a room and into the dining room where her father sat, food before him, a smile ready to greet her.

"Good morning, Korra"

"Good morning"

She murmured in response, and almost immediately, she could feel the smiles on both her parent's faces brighten significantly. It was the first time she'd spoken since the morning before, and like they'd done since the day she'd been injured, they took every word to heart. Soaking, reveling in the small ounce of hope attached to them. However miniscule, however pitiful, they latched on like fish to water, deprived, and twiddling the idea between their fingers as if that in itself would bring them from the brink, would make every single thing alright.

Blue eyes glistened with tears unshed, her heart heavy, barely holding, and, her spirit in crutches. Truly, she was jealous. Jealous of her parents and their long-standing hope. Jealous of her parents and their utter conviction of her eventual recovery. Because unlike them, she was barely holding on. Unlike them, everything she'd ever known was in tatters. Unlike them she had nothing to keep her holding onto hope. Her conviction was long since gone, her hope was long since shattered, her pride wounded, her heart stomped on. She glared, brushing away her tears with shaking arms, numb and weak and alone and angry. So very angry.

"What would you like to have, Korra?"

She didn't respond. She never did.

* * *

 _ **Walk.**_

Sharp tendrils splicing through tender skin. Pain coursing like blood through obstructed veins, arching, dipping, slicing at flesh with each heavily conducted motion.

 _ **Walk!**_

Earthen floors like ice on warm feet. Metal rails, a needed hold- so horribly needed. An invisible chain of chi and determination, from onwards drifting towards her, in front of her, she just had to hold. One step, she knew, would take her to it. One step, she knew, would lead to her health. Her wellbeing at stake, her livelihood and happiness. One step, she knew, was all that was needed. Just one step. One single, simple step.

 _ **Walk!**_

Pain, new yet old. Pain ricocheting in wave after wave. Fate had such vile a humor… she was falling before it even registered to her.

She'd failed.

One step, was all that was needed. One step, was all she needed to take. One step and, like she had so many times before, like she would continue to do many times after, she failed.

"Korra!"

It was a daily regimen set to bring her back to tiptop shape. She'd been at it for month's now- four, to be exact. No matter how much she pushed herself, how hard she tried, it just wasn't enough. It never was.

Katara was rushing to her side in moments, flanked by two handpicked guards from the order of the white lotus. Breathing labored, sweat dripping down her brow despite the cold, Korra tried desperately to shake off the aged arms encircling her. Blue eyes narrowed, electrified, angry, and desperate to save themselves from the oncoming embarrassment. It was a weak attempt that failed the moment she tried. Katara was relentless in her caregiving ways, after all, and, with the fallen avatar shaking in her grasps, never did the thought of letting go reach her mind. Simply put, it was unthinkable.

"Are you alright?"

Katara's eyes were on her. Hard, yet wizened with age. All too knowing of the glistening of her eyes, the wetness of her cheek. All too knowing of the growing knot in her stomach, the utterance of failure on her lips. All too knowing of the pain. Like so many times before, she found herself unable to lie in the face of those eyes. Choking, desperate, well and truly beaten, she whispered, low, breathless, and struggling to hold in her fears.

"It h-hurts, Katara. It hurts…"

Physically, emotionally, spiritually, she could never tell. Not if she dug through every memory cast aside. Not if she ravaged every shelf of thought she had in mind. The pain was always there, a constant, a mockery when feet touched earth, when limbs so much as _tried._ But hands did nothing, they never did. She didn't understand.

"Do you want to continue, Korra?"

"N-No. No more… I-I think I'm done for today."

The guards helped her off. One simple step, yet she failed… she didn't see Katara for the rest of that day.

* * *

Dawn. She loved the dawn.

Not as much as she loved dusk, yet so much more than she loved the midday sun or the fullness of the moon. There was a certain beauty to it, much like the rising sun, yet all the same, it was so entirely different. The end of eras was rife with imagery of the setting sun, much like dusk filled lavishly the foundations of new life.

Melancholy, they called it, yet despite herself, Korra couldn't help but love the dawn. There was beauty to an end, a somber peacefulness that took reign as light faded and darkness grasped the corners of the world. She found herself entirely enraptured, watching long past the setting of the sun, the sizzling of orange beams against mirroring ice and well into the start of night. Stars had settled against the barely clouded sky when she was fetched for supper. With a kiss and a greeting, Korra didn't dare speak.

Dinner was uneventful, though her mother fretted over her barely eaten food and her father fretted about her frowns and quietness. It was normal and repetitive, like all her days always were, and, she found herself tuning out most of it. She didn't answer any questions, didn't participate in any conversation. She just sat and stared and wondered when it would all end.

Her mind raced through possibilities, large and small, believable and not. Her status the first factor, her bending the next. Her mantras of encouragement waned with each and every traverse. She knew with lengthened time, she was only further losing hope. With lengthened time the possibility of so much as walking, of _bending_ withered and burned and scattered into an oblivion slowly growing unreachable. She knew with lengthened time, everything she'd previously strived for would disappear and die and she'd be unable to do anything but sit and watch. Korra hated it. She really truly hated it, but, slowly, she was coming to except that possibility as an everyday reality.

She left early, food half eaten, quiet still. Neither of her parents said anything about it, but she could feel their eyes on her as she carted away. It was regular, it was normal, they simply hadn't gotten used to it.

There was a pond outback, iced over but beautiful nonetheless. Circled by sculpted ice of master waterbenders, it was a favorite place of hers, not counting the 'wasteland' outside the compound. Letting her wheelchair stop just steps short of falling into the knee high water, Korra simply sat there and stared, blue eyes wide, focused yet entirely elsewhere. In different times, in different places, with different people. Her friends, in republic city, pro-bending, fighting bad guys… wining.

A small indiscernible smile flittered its way across her lips as she walked the path of old, shorn memories. Of Mako and his ego, Bolin and his… Bolin-ness and Asami, sweet yet cool exterior and all. Team avatar together again, fighting crime, happy as ever. Never mind the love that went nowhere, the drama that festered and nearly broke them. Korra bound herself to every other moment, when smiles ran rampant with laughter throughout.

 _Bolin 'accidentally' dropped a sack of rice on his brother. Mako was steaming, Asami and Korra were laughing their hearts away._

So very happy, so un-peculiar. Picture perfect and dazzling in a splendor she wished to revel in for just a little while longer.

Trapped in a memory; gripping at strings to keep her aloft. Forcefully forgotten letters left rotting in a bin, a heavy heart worn down and slowly crumbling, eyes glistening, mind reeling, stuck with the empty melodies of short, happy memories. Korra gazed up into the starlight for the first time that night, ocean blue orbs left eyeing the moon. Heart heavy, mind torn, a crumbling resolve. She laughed, still stuck in that memory. She laughed until her throat was sore, until her lips stung, until she just couldn't anymore. When the empty smile faltered, when the charade was done and the memory torn. Lips, downturned wobbled and the laughter died into choked sobs.

She then grieved like she laughed: _until she just couldn't anymore._

* * *

 **:UNEDITED:**

 **First tLOK fanfic, yayyyy?**

 **So I admit, I was the taddest bit confused on just how I was going to pen this. Yeah, I had the fanfic festering in my mind for months now, I mean, I'm a huge tLOK fan and yet I hadn't til this point written anything for that series yet so... yeah. Hopefully, its not so bad. I did kinda sorta rush it due to the late hour in which I started writing it (Its 12:40am now, if thats any indication) so, my apologies, I'll edit this in the near future!**

 **Hopefully however, this is good enough for now! Til I next post (Hopefully on my AtLA series...);**

 **Ciao!**

 **-Yorky**


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